Monday, May 12, 2014

A cosy chat with Aunty Marilyn

I believe our television current affairs interviewers
do a pretty good job. Both The
Nation and Q+A have been generally well
served by interviewers who have been fair and even-handed, asked intelligent
questions and been tough without indulging in gratuitous blood-letting. But I
thought Q+A’s Susan Wood let herself down
at the weekend.

Even before interviewing Professor Marilyn Waring, Wood gave
us a taste of what to expect by describing Waring as “one of our most
influential thinkers”. Really?

To be fair, Waring deserves everlasting credit for having
the guts to stand up to Robert Muldoon, unlike the pusillanimous male
lickspittles with whom he surrounded himself (and Q+A obligingly reminded us who some of them were by showing the famous
footage of a clearly under-the-weather Muldoon, surrounded by his inner circle,
announcing the 1984 snap election that Waring precipitated by announcing she
would cross the floor).

But one of our most influential thinkers? Influential to
whom, exactly?

Wood then proceeded to conduct possibly the softest interview
I’ve seen on Q+A, nodding sympathetically
throughout as Waring recited a drearily familiar left-wing litany of
grievances. Essentially her message is that the much-touted rock star economy is
an illusion and that New Zealanders are being hoodwinked by spinmeisters. (Subtext:
we’re all too dumb to understand economics and need people like Waring, who objects
to people putting an “ideological” spin on the subject – I particularly liked
that bit and thought she did well to keep a straight face, given her own
leanings– to explain what’s really going on.)

These are perfectly legitimate views, and I could even agree
with Waring on one point: namely, that damage to our waterways means the public
is at least partly bearing the cost of the dairying boom. But what I object to is that she sailed
through the interview without once being challenged. Wood smiled benignly
throughout, as if she were in the presence of a much-loved and slightly eccentric
maiden aunt. That’s not a privilege extended to other guests on Q+A.

I could only conclude that Waring is one of Wood’s heroes.
And that would be fair enough too, provided she didn’t make it so painfully
obvious.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist and columnist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. In the presence of Greenies I like to boast that I walk to work each day - I've paced it out and it's about 15 metres. I write about all sorts of stuff: politics, the media, music, wine, films, cycling and anything else that piques my interest - even sport, though I admit I don't have the intuitive understanding of sport that most New Zealand males absorb as if by osmosis. I'm a former musician (bass and guitar) with a lifelong love of music that led me to write my book 'A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis', published by Bateman NZ in July 2016. I've been in journalism for more than 40 years and like many journalists I know a little bit about a lot of things and probably not enough about anything. I have never won any journalism awards.